Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, August 19, 2021. Sip up.
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A. What’s Brewing Today: Technology News
1. Funding - PSA Software: Parallax, a developer of professional services automation (PSA) software, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Grotech Ventures with participation from Matchstick Ventures and Rally Ventures. The PSA software is positioned for digital agencies and technology consultancies. Parallax has a Product Advisory Council (PAC) that spans 140 businesses -- including Marketing, Custom Software Development, Managed Services and Corporate IT Services departments.
2. M&A - Private Equity and Service Lifecycle Management (SLM): Syncron, backed by private equity firm Summit Partners, has acquired Mize -- a provider of Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) software spanning Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WCM) solutions. Syncron's areas of expertise include Service Parts and Contracts Management including Inventory, Pricing, and IoT-based preventive repair monitoring solutions.
3. Talent - Digital Agency & E-Commerce: Accenture has named Droga5 founder David Droga as Accenture Interactive’s new CEO and creative chairman, effective September 1, 2021. Accenture acquired Drago5 in April 2019.
4. SaaS for Government: Workday has achieved Ready status for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) at a Moderate impact level. The move better positions Workday to promote SaaS-based HR and financial applications to U.S. federal government agencies. The FedRAMP milestone arrives roughly one week after Workday and Google announced a cloud partnership.
5. Cisco Quarterly Financial Results: Networking company Cisco Systems reported Q4 financial results for fiscal 2021. Key metrics include:
- Revenue of $13.1 billion in Q4, up 8 percent from Q4 of fiscal 2020.
- Net income of $3 billion in Q4, up 14 percent from Q4 of fiscal 2020.
On the product segment front, Infrastructure Platforms revenue grew 13 percent; Security rose 1 percent; and applications revenue fell 1 percent.
The figures generally beat Wall Street's expectations. However, Cisco faces rising component costs amid the continued semiconductor shortage. Cisco expects the supply chain challenges and costs to continue through at least December 2021, and potentially into calendar year 2022, CEO Chuck Robbins said on an earnings call, Reuters reports.
6. NVIDIA Quarterly Financial Results: Chip company NVIDIA reported Q2 financial results for fiscal 2022. Key metrics include:
- Revenue of $6.51 billion, up 68 percent compared to Q2 of fiscal 2021.
- Net income of $2.4 billion, up 282 percent compared to Q2 of fiscal 2021.
On the product segment front, data center-related revenue was $2.37 billion, up 35 percent from the corresponding quarter last year. The figures generally beat Wall Street's expectations.
B. Channel Chiefs, Partner Programs, Strategic Alliances & Integrations
1. Channel Chief - APC Security Analytics: Exabeam has hired Zerto veteran Sean Abbott as director of channel & alliances, APAC.
2. Channel Chief - Cloud-Native Security: Aqua Security has hired Onapsis veteran Christopher Smith as chief revenue officer (CRO). Smith's career includes working for companies that navigated two IPOs and five M&A deals -- including Invincea (acquired by Sophos), ArcSight (acquired by Hewlett Packard) and Mercury Interactive (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Aqua Security notes.
3. Distribution - Software Firewalls: Ingram Micro's Emerging Business Group has agreed to distribute Corsa Security to U.S. channel partners. Corsa Security is a virtualization solution to automatically deploy and operate virtual firewalls.
4. Google Cloud Partner: Ensono, a Top 250 Public Cloud MSP owned by KKR, has joined the Google Cloud Partner Advantage Program.
5. SMB Partner Program: Yahoo Small Business, a division of Verizon Business, has expanded its partner ecosystem to include 1-800Accountant, Constant Contact, PromoRepublic and WebCEO. The result: Yahoo Small Business customers will have access to more solutions across accounting, SEO, social media marketing and email marketing, the company says.
6. Integration - ServiceNow and Citrix: ServiceNow and Citrix have introduced Virtual Agent integration. Leveraging ServiceNow ITSM and powered by ServiceNow IntegrationHub, the new solution plugs into the Citrix ITSM Connector app, "allowing IT to automate the necessary reset actions within Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service," the companies say.
C. Channel Partner Summits, MSP Conferences and Virtual Events Calendar
- SolarWinds EMEA Virtual Partner Summit 2021 (August 23-27)
- Build IT Live 2021 (August 30-September 1, New York)
- Lenovo Tech World 2021 (September 8, Virtual)
- Barracuda Secured.21 (September 14-16, Virtual)
- Nutanix .Next 2021 (September 2023, Virtual)
- ChannelE2E’s complete event calendar
- Add Your Annual Event To Our Calendar: Submit it here for consideration.
